1. Field
Various embodiments described herein relate to a storage management apparatus, a storage system, and a storage management method, capable of managing data stored in storage.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, storage, such as, a magnetic disk device, a tape device, Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), or the like, capable of storing a large amount of data, has been manufactured. Furthermore, storage systems, equipped with storage management apparatuses for operating the storage for long periods of time, have been produced.
In the storage management apparatuses of recent years, the storage is managed such that the storage is provided with an opened area and a closed area therein. The opened area is an area capable of being accessed by general users. On the other hand, the closed area is an area not capable of being accessed by the general users but capable of being accessed only by authorized users who possess given system management authority. Moreover, since the storage management apparatuses of recent years are capable of redundant-storing data in each of these areas, data loss due to improper operations by the users or due to system failures may be prevented.
In introducing a new storage system intended for long period of operation, data corruption may occur due to mistakes in handling data that result from an unfamiliar system or data may be deleted due to bugs in firmware within the storage system, at an initial stage of use of the new storage system. In addition, it is highly possible that users who are unfamiliar with handling the storage system itself lead to the data corruption and the data deletion due to improper operations.
Furthermore, if a bundle of data (hereinafter, referred to as “contents”), brought together in one archive file made up of a plurality of files for the purpose of providing a service, is redundantly stored in the opened area and the closed area, a memory area of the whole storage system becomes deficient with time from the start of its operation. A technique of addressing the above problem has been discussed. In this technique, a plurality of identical contents is not stored in the memory area but linked to one another, so that an amount of storage in use may be reduced (that is, managing with a “single-instance”). This technique allows a reduction in the amount of storage in use. However, on the other hand, this technique is unable to make effective use of an unused storage.